The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. For example, conventional photoresist layers comprise a base, which is not photosensitive. Thus, after an exposure process, exposed areas of a photoresist layer may exhibit less than desirable acid distribution contrast and base distribution contrast. This leads to lower pattern contrast, resulting in poor pattern profiles and/or poor resolution, particularly as pattern features continue to decrease in size.
Conventional methods for improving resolution usually include using a quencher, photo decomposable base (PDB) or photo decomposable quencher (PDQ) and a photo-acid generator (PAG) in the photoresist layer. The quencher is a base molecule that can neutralize the acid to quench a chemically amplified reaction (CAR). The PDB or PDQ is a base and typically becomes less basic after exposure. The PAG generates an acid after exposure. Different diffusions of the quencher, PDB, and the PAG often result in a loss of contrast in the final pattern. In addition, this difference can cause loss in pattern uniformity and produce poor lithographic performance, such as poor critical dimension uniformity (CDU), poor depth of focus (DOF), poor pattern fidelity, pattern scum, and increased roughness.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and photoresist material for manufacturing an integrated circuit device that addresses the above stated issues.